HOUSTON — Gov. Greg Abbott announced an executive order today purporting to bar the transportation and travel of migrants in the state of Texas. The declaration seeks to authorize the Texas Department of Public Safety to pull over drivers they suspect of violating the order and to reroute or impound their vehicles.
The following statement can be attributed to Kate Huddleston, attorney at the ACLU of Texas:
“Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest efforts to make Texas an anti-immigrant police state are yet another unconstitutional assault on civil rights targeting border communities. The governor’s order will lead to racial profiling and over-policing — with state troopers pulling over cars and buses without lawful justification, profiling passengers, and questioning people about their immigration status.
The fiat continues a long, racist history of placing blame for the spread of disease onto immigrants and communities at the border. There is no reason for the governor to halt travel in the state of Texas other than to terrorize these communities and distract from his own leadership failures.”